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Busts in Boston and NoVa

jim_hatez

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#3
This shit has made national news. It's getting a lot of attention because supposedly they identified a lot of the guys as government involved/contractors/etc. I think also there is an angle here about possible fraud related to Covid relief funds as well. Not sure if that precipitated this or not but it appears to be a factor based on the article I read.

Not good. Hopefully these agencies truly destroy verification data but of course that's an unknown. Will be interesting to see if they end up identifying any of them publicly. The fact the shit went national makes me believe they will.
 

automatic_tiger

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#4
I think also there is an angle here about possible fraud related to Covid relief funds as well.
I'm pretty sure that many operators improperly applied for an received COVID relief funds.
Hell, I've taken dozens of calls over the past couple years from fixers trying to get me to apply for a piece of that huge pie, for a percentage I'm sure. Many must have signed on.
We had a local (Delaware) business owner (three R&Ts) who applied for and received COVID relief funds, along with gray-area insurance claims and creative income tax filings. They nailed her ass but good in February of this year.
The main beef was probably the financial improprieties, but a side-effect was that our area lost three nice shops.
 

PhillyJimi

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#5
I read the details of the actual affidavit, which was part of the surveillance of the individuals involved. 90% of it was the tracking of financial transactions of the owners. I believe the feds got involved because they owned businesses in 2 or more states. I have a feeling if it was brought to the local LE attention, renting a room and buying food for an apartment would of been something that they would not of really cared about.

No girls confessed to being forced to do anything or that they didn't get to keep their fair share of the money. They rented rooms. They made great money. The men/John's didn't admit to doing anything. The investigator claimed to "Interview" 20 men/Johns. NOTE: no suggestion that any of them confessed or offered any information.

I have yet to figure out how, a lady can say she is a trafficking victim when she is actively seeking work and is charging $300+/hr and making 5 figures a month in cash. What is she going to do? Complain that her $6,000 hand bag is 6 months too old and it doesn't match her new shoes and she is a victim of trafficking herself by herself? The media/politicians will paint these women all as 15 year old girls that were kidnapped in their sleeps and are chained to the walls by their captors. I have been on these kinds of boards for over 20 years, and am yet to ever see any post that hints at this kind of abuse. I do stay away from street level because too many of those women are slaves to their addictions.

The affidavit had a final 2 recommendations or possible grounds for charges, were mainly for fraud due to the Covid funds of $500,000+. Also a recommended charge for trafficking in order to force or push these ladies into prostitution. Considering these were high end operations, I am not sure how in the world they are going to get that to stick or to build a case for the 2nd charge? Prostitution is a local charge that the local LE agencies would handle.

If you want to read the entire, affidavit, the reality seems to be, a partner of the people running this operation got mad at the other partners and went to LE to rat out the partners who they felt screwed them over. Someone had receipts and kept track of the details. When the Covid funds were mentioned, that was enough to trip an investigation.
 

jim_hatez

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Interesting detail PhiliJimi. Did you see the one article that implied this may be a CCP sponsored espionage operation to gather intel or compromising information that they can leverage? Of course that sounds like total BS to me, was just curious if you saw anything about that in your research
 

Wayne1250

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#7
I guess in Boston it was Boston Top 10 that got pinched. Their website seems to have been seized by the authorities. What NOVA agencies were effected, the 3 that I know are still up and running, at least on their websites?
 

이 회장님

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Interesting detail PhiliJimi. Did you see the one article that implied this may be a CCP sponsored espionage operation to gather intel or compromising information that they can leverage? Of course that sounds like total BS to me, was just curious if you saw anything about that in your research
You’re right—CCP sponsored espionage being involved is total BS.

Three irresponsible Koreans got too greedy and James Lee thought it was a great idea to obtain Covid funds of over $500K by using fake IDs and deposit another $750K in cash into his checking account.

The three Koreans are as dumb as the Yankees front office.
 

SlickWillyClinton

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#10
Interesting detail PhiliJimi. Did you see the one article that implied this may be a CCP sponsored espionage operation to gather intel or compromising information that they can leverage? Of course that sounds like total BS to me, was just curious if you saw anything about that in your research
The CCP involved in some Korean escort agencies? They can't even tell nationalities apart LMAO.
 

이 회장님

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The CCP involved in some Korean escort agencies? They can't even tell nationalities apart LMAO.
CCP: “Hey James what’s up?”

James Lee: “Yes, who is this?”

CCP: “This is the State Security Ministry of the People’s Republic of China.” “We need to talk and discuss a mutually beneficial relationship.”

James Lee: “Sure, let’s meet at the food court in Hmart in Cambridge at 12pm.” “Let’s have lunch, my treat.”

CCP: “Can we meet at 11am?”

James Lee: “I’m so sorry. I have to meet the Russians at 11am, the Iranians at 11:15, the North Koreans at 11:30 and the Cubans at 11:45am. And at 7pm, I’m going to a Bruins game. But I can meet you guys at 12pm.”
 

jim_hatez

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#13
You’re right—CCP sponsored espionage being involved is total BS.

Three irresponsible Koreans got too greedy and James Lee thought it was a great idea to obtain Covid funds of over $500K by using fake IDs and deposit another $750K in cash into his checking account.

The three Koreans are as dumb as the Yankees front office.
I agree its stupid. I didn't put any stock in it. My issue was less about if it was true than if they are trying to push that angle as an excuse to go after others and or deep dive into the mongers involved. I didn't go there, so it's not an issue for me, but still I worry about whether or not if this has any legs to spread outward and if the espionage excuse is going to be an angle they are really trying to utilize.
 

Twp1032

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#14
My guess is that it somewhat depends on how much squealing these guys do about the various connections they have in order to reduce their sentences as to how broad this gets.

As far as the espionage piece u would think they would be more concerned with execs from companies with govt contracts and higher ranking govt employees/pols being compromised (good luck with that) than the providers and the owners. It doesnt sound like they have spent any energy on the customers at all.

The other thing that could make this a bigger deal is if a crusader from the press wants to save all of tbe women we know who are pulling down 6 figures from being forced into a life of making a lot of money.
 

automatic_tiger

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#15
Maybe not espionage, but I pretty sure they monitor everything that goes through WeChat.
Yeah, like the NSA on our side monitoring our phone calls, emails, and text messages.
Any sober assessment of the amount of data to plow vs. the return in valuable intel through would lead to the conclusion that they're just searching for politically sensitive keywords and/or specific high-target-value individuals.
The WeChat babble between providers and customers would not be of much interest.
Since Chinese providers are sending big chunks of their US income back to the motherland anyway, why would the CCP want to interfere? This is just covert foreign aid.
 

bjandthebear

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#16
Interesting detail PhiliJimi. Did you see the one article that implied this may be a CCP sponsored espionage operation to gather intel or compromising information that they can leverage? Of course that sounds like total BS to me, was just curious if you saw anything about that in your research
Ummm, im gonna call bs on that. Yeah, i saw wolf.of wall.street too. Plus, i thonk theres actually a massage parkor a few blocks from congress. I dont think.thats from a fever dream onspired by "Billions"
 
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